How do I hear God’s voice

Not usually with your ears. That needs saying first, because people wait years for sound waves and conclude the line is dead. God’s voice has a range: the Scriptures read until a sentence stands up; a sermon that lands strangely; a friend who says the exact needed thing; a circumstance that closes one door and opens another; a quiet, arriving certainty that is not your own mood and does not behave like one. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof” (John 3:8) — you hear the sound, not the source. That is the normal frequency.

How do you get better at it? The same way you learn anyone’s voice: exposure. A child in a house learns to distinguish their mother’s footsteps in the dark — not by effort, but by long company. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Hearing is the fruit of being known and of keeping company. Read plainly, pray plainly, and expect the recognizing to come slowly, the way fluency does.

And when you think you have heard, test gently: does it agree with Scripture, does it produce peace rather than compulsion, does it make you more loving, does it survive a week? What is from God is not fragile and does not fear those questions. He is not trying to make you guess wrong. “Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:9) — say it slowly. He has been saying your name longer than you have been listening.